Feature Story from 2005

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Hurricane Katrina slammed two year's timber harvest volume to the ground, but the forecast for the industry value still shows a slight increase over 2004.

Bob Daniels, forestry professor with Mississippi State University's Extension Service, is predicting the forestry value of production for the state to be $1.27 billion, a 1 percent increase over the previous year's value. This estimate is based on timber severance tax collections and timber prices through October.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Mississippi's poultry industry was poised to see another increase in value before Hurricane Katrina came through and set the whole industry back significantly, but producers have regrouped and are planning on expansion next year.

Poultry's estimated value fell 6 percent to an estimated $1.98 billion in 2005, mostly caused by hurricane losses. The industry's value topped the $2 billion mark for the first time last year, and had been in a modest expansion before the hurricane hit.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- George M. Hopper has been voted president-elect of the National Association of University Forest Resources Programs.

MISSISSIPPI STATE -- It wasn't long ago that spotting the word “soy” on a food label meant a shopper had drifted into the health food section of the grocery store, but the ingredient shows up in mainstream products throughout those same stores today.

The humble soybean is grown mostly for its protein and oil. Mississippi producers plant more than 1.5 million acres of farmland to soybeans each year, and the crop is used in everything from catfish feed to biodiesel and ham.